Block comfortable again in the WRC

Something important for the American

By Franck Drui

1 June 2011 - 10:10
Block comfortable again in the WRC

Ken Block has said that "getting comfortable" in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC again took away some of the frustration he felt after he failed to complete the entire competitive route on Rally Argentina last week.

Block was making his return to the world championship following his shakedown crash on Vodafone Rally de Portugal at the end of March. He relied on SupeRally restart regulations to finish 18th overall after a driveshaft failure felled his Monster World Rally Team entry on Saturday morning.

“It was a tough rally and mechanical issues are never fun to go through but that’s part of motorsport,” said the American. “But I was able to get comfortable in the car again [after Portugal], which was important for me.”

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino had been in contention for a top 10 finish in Argentina before things went awry on Saturday morning.

“It was really disappointing after I’d made it through the car-breaking stuff of Friday,” said Block. “I was actually doing fairly decent stage times compared to Federico [Villagra], a good local driver. But it wasn’t meant to be and I’m gutted I didn’t get to do Saturday afternoon’s stages.”

While Block failed to land drivers’ championship points in South America, by reaching the finish in Villa Carlos Paz on Sunday afternoon he scored manufacturers’ championship points for his Monster team for the third time this season. The American-backed squad holds ninth in the makes’ classification.

Block will return to WRC duty on Rallye Deutschland, the all-asphalt contest based in Trier from 18-21 August. Before then he will make another appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed motorsport showcase in the United Kingdom from 30 June-3 July.

“Last year I had a great time there but we haven’t figured out exactly what we’ll be doing there,” said Block. “The most courteous fans are there at Goodwood and I enjoy going there. Our goal is to have two cars there but if not we’ll just have the Fiesta WRC car. We’ll see.”

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